Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones spoke to new attorney general Jeff Sessions last week while in Washington, DC, for a law enforcement convention. Jones then relayed that conversation to Bob Moffitt, a Sacramento reporter for Capital Public Radio. Jones said he made a point of bringing up immigration and cannabis policy with Sessions, who at the time was still awaiting confirmation by the full Senate.

“Regarding the prioritization of federal resources to combat marijuana, he didn’t see the federal government getting involved in marijuana use or low-level state, what are traditionally state and local crimes,” Sheriff Jones told the radio reporter. “But I don’t think he ruled out the possibility of the federal government getting involved in larger-scale operations.”

If this is, indeed, the case, it wouldn’t be a far cry from the policy of the Obama Administration. Obama generally maintained a laissez-faire approach to state-by-state legalization, but some legal state operations still suffered federal raids and indictments.

Sheriff Jones indicated that Sessions might be more inclined to go after drug cartels–which, it’s worth pointing out, are suffering due to the expansion of legalization in the United States.

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